Grounded in Music to host 10 year anniversary benefit Wednesday, April 12 featuring The Peterson Brothers and Suzanna Choffel

    Date/Time:
    04/12/2017 | Wednesday | 6:30 pm - 11:30 pm

    Location:
    Gibson Brand Showroom
    3601 S. Congress Ave. Suite G400
    Austin,TX 78704

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    Grounded in Music is thrilled to announce its 10 Year Anniversary Benefit on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 featuring The Peterson Brothers and Suzanna Choffel. The evening will be hosted by musician/songwriter Kathy Valentine, an Austin Music Hall of Fame inductee and member of the iconic band the Go-Go’s. The event will take place at the Gibson Brands Showroom located at 3601 S. Congress Ave. Suite G400, Austin, Texas 78704. There will be a VIP pre-show reception beginning at 5:30 p.m. for sponsors, press and VIPs. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and music will kick off at 7:15 p.m. with a performance by the Grounded in Music students. The event is open to the public. Tickets are $45 per person and include bites and beverages, as well as a silent auction. Sponsors for the event will be announced shortly. To purchase tickets, please go to: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-peterson-brothers-suzanna-choffel-special-guests- tickets-31146634422. For more information about Grounded in Music, please visit www.groundedinmusic.net.

    The benefit will help raise needed funds for the organization, which has been a signature program of the Boys and Girls Club of Austin for the past 10 years as it strives to change the lives of kids through music. Event proceeds will be used to purchase musical instruments for underprivileged youth, provide education in musicianship and recording arts, teach music theory and offer music- related opportunities outside of performance.

    “It is hard to believe we are in our tenth year,” said Joe Stallone, Grounded in Music Founder. “When we started, we agreed that we would continue programming for at least three years (at any cost). Now we are in our tenth year and there are no signs of slowing down. It has really been an incredible journey. We literally started with nothing. We even wrote personal checks to pay the instructors in the first year. Within a few years, we had an amazing group of instructors, we brought kids to Stubbs, Bass Concert Hall and the Irwin Center. Amazingly enough – with the support of some really great people like Patty Griffin, Jack Ingram and Gina Fant-Sanez – we built a music studio for our kids.”

    Launched in 2007 in Austin, Texas, Grounded in Music is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation whose sole mission is to leverage the power of music to transform young lives by creating self-confidence, opportunity and hope through Austin’s Boys and Girls Club system. Grounded in Music was founded by Austin music industry professional Joe Stallone, Partner at Oaks, Hartline & Daly LLP and Jeff Krenik, VP of Live Entertainment at Street Team. The board and advisory committee currently consist of Austin Community College Department Chair, Music Business, Performance + Technology Geoffrey Schulman; Juice Consulting President and Founder, Heather Wagner Reed; Orb Recording Studio Owner and Blue October group member, Matt Noveskey; Attorney at Oaks, Hartline & Daly LLP, Andrea Villarreal; Internal Controls Manager at Holtzman Partners, Natalie Blahuta and Owner/Operator Doghouse Studio and sound-designer SAHAREM, Austin Hegarty.

    “The transformation in these kids is really something to see,” said Stallone. “Kids that start with no music background literally end up cornering me and demanding that I shop them a record deal. This self-confidence is going to transfer to everything they do. It brings tears to my eyes.”

    Grounded in Music is currently serving three Boys and Girls Club locations (and hopefully five by this Fall) throughout Austin including Bertha Saddler Means Young Women’s Leadership Academy, San Juan Diego and Chalmers Courts Housing Authority. The nonprofit provides services to 30 – 40 students per session and offers Fall, Spring and Summer sessions. The organization serves many more students through concerts, soundcheck programs, meet-and-greets and other strategic partnerships. The program has also provided services to other locations such as BCG-East-Booker T. Washington Housing Authority and the Meadowbrook Housing Authority, who with GIM’s partnership were able to acquire a $10,000 grant to purchase gear for their recording studio. Grounded in Music is also excited to expand its outreach in Summer 2017 with a new Studio Technology Program located in the Henry Flores Learning Center at the HACA Meadowbrook apartments.

    “Grounded is offering seven teaching sessions per week where students have time individually to connect with some of Austin’s working professional musicians,” said Michael Longoria, Grounded in Music’s Program Director. “In these individual lessons kids receive positive mentorship and role models to also help anchor the children’s weekly routines. We have seen kids grow from having no previous relation to music to making it to All-Star Band students. We are serving as a feeder to middle school and high school band programs where kids will enter with previous skills acquired through time with GIM instructors.”

    For more information, please see www.groundedinmusic.net.

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